Wargaming has launched its free-to-play online tank battling game, World of Tanks to the Xbox 360 today and the game is available "globally" for all Xbox Live subscribers. Published by Microsoft Studios and developed by Wargaming West (formerly Day 1 Studios), World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition is digital downloadable and free-to-play for Xbox Live Gold account holders, with a 7-day timed trial offered for Xbox Live Silver members. At launch World of Tanks on Xbox 360 offers tanks from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, and seven different maps to play on in 15 v. 15 player team battles. Wargaming says that it will add more tanks, nations, and maps in the future.

With the global launch of the game, Wargaming is offering a number of Founder's Packs: Founders Pack 1, which contains the US Tier VII T23 medium tank, an extra garage slot, 17 premium ammo rounds, a 100% trained crew, 10 small repair kits, 10 small first aid kits, 10 manual fire extinguishers, an exclusive gold star emblem and 30 days of premium account status for the price of 6,700 gold; and Founders Pack 2, which contains the German Tier V PzKpfw V-IV medium tank, an extra garage slot, 19 premium ammo rounds, a 100% trained crew, 5 small repair kits, 5 small first aid kits, 5 manual fire extinguishers, an exclusive black star emblem and 7 days of premium account status for the price of 3,400 gold. Players who purchase both will also receive a bonus Russian T-127 light premium tank.

This release is interesting to us mainly because Microsoft doesn't have a good track record when it comes to bringing free-to-play games to its console(s). While Sony has had several including DC Universe Online and Free Realms on PS3, the Xbox 360 has only seen one other free-to-play game survive on the system: the popular team-based strategy action RPG Happy Wars. Hopefully World of Tanks will show Microsoft that free-to-play games with reasonable microtransactions are worth bringing to Xbox 360 and eventually Xbox One. Of course, all that hinges on World of Tanks succeeding on the platform. Stay tuned.